Democrats cry foul as voter rolls cut

Chris Granger / The Times-PicayuneVoters line up at New Orleans City Hall on the last day of early voting. Louisiana Democratic Party officials told lawmakers Tuesday that Democrats are being purged from the rolls at a higher rate than those of other parties.

BATON ROUGE -- Louisiana Democratic Party officials told lawmakers Tuesday that voters in their party are being removed from the rolls at a higher percentage than non-Democrats.

Randy Piedrahita, general counsel for the state Democratic Party, told members of the House Committee on House and Governmental Affairs that about 11,500 voters were removed from the rolls by parish registrars from late August to late September, a disproportionate hit compared to non-Democrats.

He said the ratio of removal of Democrats ranged from 2-1 in some parishes to as high as 25-1 in East Carroll Parish, where there are relatively few Republicans registered. Piedrahita said he did not have the total number of Democrats removed.

"The registrars are whacking non-Republicans at an incredibly high rate, " he said.

Secretary of State Jay Dardenne, the state's chief elections officer, said that the registrars are following state law by making sure only eligible voters are on the rolls for the Nov. 4 presidential and congressional races.

"They (the registrars) issue a challenge; it is not a removal, " Dardenne said. "There is no attempt to rid the rolls of anyone based on party, race gender or anything else."

Piedrahita said the voters are removed by the state in a 21-day "challenge period, " a process in which registrars can question the address or eligibility of voters and ask them to supply information within 21 days to stay on the rolls. If not the names are removed.

Piedrahita said another 14,000 voters were removed for other reasons, including death and moving to a different location. "At these numbers and these ratios, we are concerned, " he said. "What oversight is there that this is being handled in a fair an impartial way?"

Dardenne said that the records of his office show that Democrats, Republicans and independents have been dropped from the rolls roughly in proportion to their share of the voter registration.

Democrats make up 52.5 percent of voters in the state and were about 56 percent of those removed. He said about 22 percent of those removed were GOP voters who make up about 25.3 percent of the voters. About 22.4 percent of those removed were from the ranks of "other" parties or independents who make about 22.3 percent of the registered voters.

"What is triggering these registrars to do this?" Piedrahita asked the panel. "We need y'all's help and Secretary Dardenne's help to answer those questions."

Officials of the registrars of voters association were not on hand to answer questions, and committee Chairman Rick Gallot, D-Ruston, said he may hold another meeting after the election so they can explain the process.

"We see a lot of people getting removed from the rolls that may be appropriate under Louisiana law but may not be legal under federal law, " Piedrahita said. Dardenne denied registrars are engaged in an organized program to remove voters, which is forbidden by federal law.

Piedrahita said no decision has been made on whether the party will file a lawsuit. "We are still trying to find out what the problem is, " he said. "It may be the registrars."

She said all elections officials should have extra paper provisional ballots that are given to voters who claim they are registered but whose names are not on precinct roll books. Election officials meet after an election to determine if the voter was eligible and if the ballot should be counted.

"The worst thing Louisiana can face is a national story on how Louisiana didn't have enough provisional ballots, " Peterson said. "We may need to have runners and couriers standing by" to get them to the polls quickly.

The state will have at least 100,000 ballots on hand for those voters -- 20 in each of the 3,956 precincts in the state, 100 to each of the parish clerks of courts, 100 to each parish registrar of voter and 1,000 additional ballots in Orleans, Lincoln and Caddo parishes and an additional 4,500 in East Baton Rouge Parish, officials said.

Ed Anderson can be reached at eanderson@timespicayune.com or 225.342.5810.